I don't recall the Queen Mum ever smoking but it wouldn't surprise me as her Bertie was a very heavy smoker and I believe he died from lung cancer. Its noteworthy to mention too that back then the dangers of smoking were not well known and publicized as it is today. It was considered relaxing to have a smoke as it was to have a drink or two. If the Queen Mum did smoke, she wouldn't have been photographed doing it though as during my mother's lifetime a lady didn't smoke in public and a serious no no.

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“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
― John Lennon

My mom and her five siblings all smoked, and so did their dad. Their mom never smoked, but lived with seven smokers. Her dad eventually got lung cancer shortly after my mom and dad were married, and died a year and a half later, at just 66 years old (16 days away from turning 67). My mom's oldest brother quit, but started up again. He died 6 years ago at 61, also from lung cancer. Her second oldest brother is 66 now, and still smokes. Her younger brother quit, but the damage had already been done. He was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach and esophageal cancer 6 months before he died at 56 a little over two years ago. Her youngest brother is 53 and also smokes. My mom quit shortly after her dad died, but she always says she could start up again!

My dad's aunt (his dad's sister) got lung cancer, not because she smoked, but because she was a nurse and was around second-hand smoke at the hospital. We went to my dad's parents' house for dinner one night, and she and her husband were visiting from BC. When they went home at the end of their trip, she got sick, and they thought it was tuberculosis. My mom got a call from my grandma saying everyone in the family had to go to their family doctor and get a TB test done. (It was the year Diana died.) I was 7 years old, and I clearly remember screaming at my mom about how she had said no more needles until I was 16. We had the test, and as it turned out, it wasn't TB at all, but lung cancer.

^we are talking about a report from a tabloid that said she was smoking at an airport. Which I believe is illegal to smoke inside public building in France (I'm not sure)

Its illegal I think to smoke in public buildings most anywhere these days. She could very well be like my dad was and smoke every once in a blue moon but I'm going to opt out and say I really don't think I'd peg her as a smoker considering, as was pointed out, how athletic and active both William and Kate are.

I'd like to quote a wise saying made by a 7 year old I know. "If you never start, you never have to worry about quitting."

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“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
― John Lennon

Very few people who smoke are able to just have a cigarette here and there or out of the blue. You don't see a lot of light smokers, although they start out that way. Eventually you will have to have more and more which is why cigarettes are an addicting habit. One of the most difficult habits to break. Better not to start it in the first place.

My mother was a light smoker (she would take one puff and then put the cigarette in the ash tray and let it burn out) and only did so because everyone else was smoking. This was usually at a party or some other social setting. She would buy a pack of cigarettes, smoke one puff or maybe a couple of puffs and then that would be it. The cigarette went in the ash tray where it burned out. A couple of weeks would go by and she didn't smoke the entire pack.

One or two at most she smoked. She would throw it out and then end up buying a new pack because the pack she had was old and disguisting.

She did this from about age 18 to age 26. On average she smoked a couple of times a month.

Finally she asked herself why was she doing this? She didn't like to smoke and the smell of the cigarette pack after a while would make her sick. It wasn't expensive back very cheap in fact but then why pay for something you don't like and something that you don't consume? She stopped buying cigarettes after that and didn't care what people thought.

I remember one doctor telling me how clear her lungs were as many women in her generation smoked and even after they quit, there was evidence of them smoking especially if it was decades of smoking.

Either Kate does have a cigarette now and then or she doesn't. Can't be both and it's not really be proven that she smokes. If she does smoke, one would hope that after she's has a child that this would be a good reason to quit.

I just read this morning that In the recently published'Not in front of the corgis' by Brian Hoey, that Camilla is still a heavy smoker spending in excess of £100 pounds a WEEK on cigarettes. They are then placed in silver cases/boxes in every room of each of their homes, with wooden match boxes in silver boxes. I can't remember the last time I saw wooden cigarette matches.

I just read this morning that In the recently published'Not in front of the corgis' by Brian Hoey, that Camilla is still a heavy smoker spending in excess of £100 pounds a WEEK on cigarettes. They are then placed in silver cases/boxes in every room of each of their homes, with wooden match boxes in silver boxes. I can't remember the last time I saw wooden cigarette matches.

It surprises me that Prince Charles isn't bothered by that. I'd expect anyone who's as knowledgeable about healthy food and good environmental practices to be very anti-smoking.

It surprises me that Prince Charles isn't bothered by that. I'd expect anyone who's as knowledgeable about healthy food and good environmental practices to be very anti-smoking.

He may well be against her smoking. I've read she'd stopped smoking. But smoking is a addiction...an addiction harder to break than heroine according to experts. Charles can't control another person's habits. He loves her and is probably concerned about her longterm health but he can only encourage to stop.

I just read this morning that In the recently published'Not in front of the corgis' by Brian Hoey, that Camilla is still a heavy smoker spending in excess of £100 pounds a WEEK on cigarettes. They are then placed in silver cases/boxes in every room of each of their homes, with wooden match boxes in silver boxes. I can't remember the last time I saw wooden cigarette matches.

Is this a factual story? Brian Hoey isn't exactly reliable. I thought she quit in 2007. Of course, maybe when she's under stress she reaches for a cigarette. I doubt it's a £100 habit. She started smoking when she was 15 & both of her kids smoke. Most people who smoke started smoking before the age of 18.

I think the story is fake. Several people have visited Clarence House and none have mentioned the cigarette cases in every room. If she smokes she probably smokes in her suite.

He probably is bothered by it but what can he do about it. If someone wants to smoke, they will smoke.

Given the very early death of nearly all of Charles' Windsor male relatives for 3 generations, which everyone on this board screams that it was due to heavy smoking, I would think that living with the second hand smoke of a 2+ pack a day smoker for 3 decades might have some bearing on the topic.